DisTraC: A Distributed and Low-Overhead Protocol for Traffic Congestion Control Using Vehicular Networks

Abstract

The increase in traffic congestion in big cities causes negative impacts on several areas, such as health and the economy. One of the main alternatives to reduce traffic jams are Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) that use technologies such as inductive loops, Global Positioning System (GPS), and wireless communication. The vehicular networks enable the wireless communication in the vehicular environment. This communication may occur from Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) or from Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I). However, the installation and maintenance of the infrastructures necessary to cover urban areas may have high costs. Therefore, this work presents a new Distributed and low-overhead protocol for Traffic Congestion control (DisTraC) based on V2V communication. The protocol aims to reduce the average travel time of vehicles ensuring a low communication overhead. Simulations results shown that DisTraC outperforms other studies found in the literature in terms of communication overhead and is more efficient in reducing traffic congestion.